Sandwich cookies are made from two equally-sized cookie halves and a cream filler. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,524 to Welch discloses a machine for automatically making sandwiches having filler material located between two cookie halves. The machine comprises a dividing mechanism for receiving rows of cookie halves and for directing alternate rows of cookie halves to a top conveyor and a bottom conveyor. A filler applicator is located above the bottom conveyor for applying filling to the rows of cookie halves on the bottom conveyor. The top conveyor transports rows of cookie halves and deposits them at a sandwich location downstream from the filler applicator.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,098,909 and 4,194,443, both to Mims, disclose a method and apparatus for depositing filling on cookie halves having a flat side up. A vacuum pick-up device raises rows of cookie halves having a flat side down and deposits them on the filled cookie halves.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,993,453 to Fay discloses a sandwiching machine for assembling sandwiches that comprise two cookies with a cream filler between them. A conveyor feeds cookies to a cream depositor which deposits a layer of cream on the cookies. Then, another cookie is deposited on the layer of cream and the assembled sandwiches are delivered to a stacker. The cookies are supported by a taut wire arrangement. Pin-like fingers of a conveyor chain slide the cookies along the supporting wires. The cream depositor comprises a tubular shaft having a pair of stencil ports around which a depositor drum rotates. The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 2,993,453 to Fay is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,329,920 to Rose et al. discloses an automatic sandwiching machine for cookies. A cookie is deposited from a magazine onto taut parallel wires and conveyed along the wires by pins extending upwardly carried by links of endless chains of a conveyor. A turn-over wheel transfers the cookie from the magazine design-side down onto the parallel wires and then a cream valve or stencil applies cream to the plain side of the cookie. Another cookie is then applied to the cream with the design-side up. The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,329,920 to Rose et al. is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,469,021 to Rose et al. discloses a sandwiching machine for applying cream, for example, a chocolate or vanilla flavored filling, jelly, peanut butter or the like, to at least two laterally spaced rows of cookies traveling along the sandwiching machine. The sandwiching machine includes a stencil means for applying cream to the cookies in a uniform manner. The stencil assembly comprises a stencil sleeve and a stencil rotatable thereon. The stencil has spaced apart discharge orifices. The stencil sleeve has inlets at each side of the discharge orifices and valve means for controlling the flow of cream through the discharge orifices. A cream hopper communicates with the stencil sleeve inlets. The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,469,021 to Rose et al. is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Cookie halves may be made by a rotary die molding machine. U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,947 to Cardinali discloses a rotary die molding machine for making cookies, biscuits, and other baked goods. The machine includes a bore or molding cavity in a rotary die roll and a plastic wafer or insert snapped into the cavity. The plastic insert has a design on its face for imprinting a design onto the bakery dough.
Rotary molding, which is a preferred dough processing system due to its high speed capabilities, does not accommodate processing a deep-walled cookie or cookie cup. Deep-walled cookie pieces do not tend to readily release from the rotary mold as a result of adhesion of the dough to the large mold cavity. In addition, known sandwiching processes and machines do not accommodate the assembling of rotary-molded cookie pieces having a dissimilar geometry.
The present invention provides for the continuous, mass production of deep-walled cookie pieces or cookie cups containing a filler by processing of two, rotary molded cookie pieces having a dissimilar geometry. After baking, the two dissimilarly-sized molded pieces can be assembled using a modified sandwiching machine to form a cream-filled sandwich cookie having a cup-like shape.